Goal: Make a highly detailed multiracial female and use all tools possible to complicate my life... it is after all a learning experience.

Why is this complicated?
This project will probably get to a point and get stuck due to the fact that I won't have the computing power towards the end in order to finish. But I might as well get it started. The plan is make a fully rigged female model that will use SSS for the skin shader, displacement maps for geometry detail, cloth simulator for clothing and hair simulator for clothing. My machine is only a Athlon 1900+ with 512mb of RAM... so I think I probably won't be able to finish... at least until i get a new machine. Lets see how far I get. Wish me luck.

References: Since I want this to be a multi-racial person. I can't really use references. However, I will be looking at many photos of the many celebrities out there, especially the ones with stronger features. IE: Jessica Alba, Kiera Knightly, Zhang Yi Zi, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, etc.

The geometry started out as a lowpoly character modeled in 3d Studio Max some time ago. After fixing the topology of it and turning it into a ton of quads, I imported it into ZBrush to paint some detail on it.

I ended up using no references. But I suppose its based off of Jessica Alba more than anyone else. Although the more I look at it, the less it looks like it.

So I hit my first limit already. I can only use 5 subdivisions in ZBrush since I only have 512mb of RAM. I hope this will be enough detail. We can also forget about using Zbrush's projection master to paint some more detailed normal bump maps for pores and skin folds later.

Here's the geometry rendered in Zbrush...

Here's the head: Modeling in Zbrush can be hard sometime because its always in orthographic projection mode. Doh!

Torso: Didn't really want to make a belly button or nipples as that would complicate cloth simulation later on.

Hand: This was a pain in the butt! I had to stay in the topology of the so the finger nails would come out... so the pinky is slightly screwed up because the topology was kind of messed up.

So now the obvious challenge comes to getting the model into 3d Studio Max. Since max's memory management and adaptive mesh algorithms (or rather lack there of) is really crappy so it can't really handle the 500k poly models that ZBrush can handle in real time. So I did some testing. If you want, you can check out that thread right here:

In any case, I used the lowpoly cage below and got some pretty good results with the VRay displacment mod.

The Winner: Vray
Two different types of displacements were used for testing and as you can see, they were all blazingly fast!

Subivision: This, in theory should give the most accurate shapes since this is what ZBrush outputs, unfortunately it leads to some artifacts of little bumps. Anyone know how to solve this?

2d (Landscape) This requires you to smooth out your mesh before you apply the displacement. This works just fine. But once again there are some different artificats. This time from the way the displacment map is set up itself since ZBrush outputs subdivision displacement maps.

Decided to use HDRI for lighting as that seems to be the best way to get realstic effects quickly. Played around Vray materials for an hour or two to get the results below. As you can see, Vray renders SSS fairly quickly even with GI turned on. After gettinga fix on that, I decided to paint a diffuse texture. Next up, reflection and bump maps.

Problem: There seems to be a problem with some lighting. There is a major artifact in the ear area where it is just completely black. I have no idea what that is all about. However, as for the eye being black I know that's probably because I truned off refractive caustics in Vray to increase render times.

Does anyone know how fix the ear?

Once again, crits and comments are welcomed. Wow, not getting much activity on this thread....

armpits should be improved, if you want to use cloth on them, rigth now they look really weird, as for the rest of the model there are some othe issues like the shape of the head and the shoulders (they look almost conical!) so I would try to fix that first before getting deeper into the rest of your project. Good luck

Quote: armpits should be improved, if you want to use cloth on them, rigth now they look really weird, as for the rest of the model there are some othe issues like the shape of the head and the shoulders (they look almost conical!)

Whoa your diffinitely right about that! I didn't even notice. I guess I got a little lazy. Although I don't see what you mean by the armpits and cloth. Yeah, there's some weirdness (this is more to do with a topology issue.. ARRRG But what do you mean by the problem with a cloth. I don't see how that would affect it.

Also do you have any tips for me to do cloth? I've been reading some papers and learning about the caveats and such. I've decided to go for springy sleaveless top and longer pleated skirt.

So i tried fixing the shoulders a bit to make it more anatomically correct. It's better now. As for the armpit, I'm getting some major issues with the topology and Zbrush's smoothing tool not really cooperating. Oh well, it should be better once the arm actually bends down.

Did some reflection and bump mapping to the face. Also added some frickles. I also turned on refractive caustics so we can see the eye texture... which diffinitely needs some work! But I'm pretty happy with the skin and fairly low render time of 10 minutes for a 760x760 frame.

Originally Posted by AtmaWeapon:Whoa your diffinitely right about that! I didn't even notice. I guess I got a little lazy. .

Glad to help

Originally Posted by AtmaWeapon:Although I don't see what you mean by the armpits and cloth. Yeah, there's some weirdness (this is more to do with a topology issue.. ARRRG But what do you mean by the problem with a cloth. I don't see how that would affect it.

Also do you have any tips for me to do cloth? I've been reading some papers and learning about the caveats and such. I've decided to go for springy sleaveless top and longer pleated skirt.

Well, I only work with Maya cloth and have no idea about how 3ds apps for clothing behave (I tried once the famous plug-in which name now eludes me but found it unreliable and way too cumbersome, which is what most people whine about maya's cloth...go figure) But in your particular case you shouldn't have any problem come to think of it, a sleaveless top won't interact too much with the armpits and using a skirt is a warranty to avoid leg problems. Anyway, just make sure to constrain the top of the skirt to the body (that's what you do in maya) and make it before simulating the shirt, so they don't get in the way of each other.

If you want to check an example of my work with cloth check my first signature, hope you like it

PS: nice texturing, and the armpit & shoulder are definetly better now

Quote: Lovely textures. I would love to see more definition and detail around the eyes though...

Thanks a lot. What do you mean more detail? Are you talking about the bump or map around the eyes or the eye texture themselves. Because the eye texture themselves diffinitely need a LOT of work!

Quote:Maybe you dont get activity in this thread because your work is just great, so no crits

Well then some comments would be nice too.

Quote:If you want to check an example of my work with cloth check my first signature, hope you like it

Thats some cool stuff man... I've played around with cloth before and I have to say, I wouldn't want to make a coat any time soon especialy with stuff underneath. Yikes! Good stuff!

And now... the poses. So I exported a Low-poly model from ZBrush and used Character studio to skin this chica! It works out pretty well except obviously some of the displacement doesn't quite look right at places. You'll see. Notice the arm pit and leg parts. Also the finger nails seem to have some issues. Anyways, ideas on how to fix this? Crits and comments?

Ok, after several hours of tweaking and such, I finally got a somewhat natural looking head of hair. And for future reference: EARS SUCK! Anyways, here's a two renders. Anyone want to help me pick a hair color? Dirty brown or black? Since she is multiracial, I'm leaning towards black... that and it looks a bit more natural.

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